Nolte: Beto O’Rourke Says His Campaign Sacrifices Make Up for Miserly Charitable Donations

Fake Hispanic Beto O’Rourke was confronted at a town hall about his miserly campaign donations and responded in such a narcissistic fashion, I suffered a Barry Obama flashback.

According to his tax returns, since 2008, the Irishman O’Rourke has donated less than one percent of his considerable income to charity.

In 2017, he earned a healthy $366,455, but his reported charitable donations totaled just $1,166. In other words, he donated less than one-third of one-percent to charity.

Over the last ten years, the Irishman O’Rourke reported an average annual income of $340,613 but “donated an average of just $2,430 to charity per year during that time, or 0.7 percent,” reports The Washington Free Beacon.

That gross dollar donation of $2,430 is also less than half of what the average American who makes considerably less than the Irishman donates to charity. The IRS reports that those in the $200,00 to $250,000 tax bracket donate an average of $5,472 annually.

“The most egregious disparity between reported income and charitable giving occurred in 2015, when O’Rourke earned $377,151 but donated just $867 to charity—just 0.2 percent of his total income,” the Free Beacon reports. “His most generous year—and the only time he came close to the national average of between two and five percent of total income—was 2013, when he reported charitable donations of $12,900 (4.3 percent) after earning $301,092.”

There are also no reports anywhere of the Irishman O’Rourke donating any of his wealth to the U.S. Treasury — in other words, living the change he wants for the rest of us through tax increases.

In other words, the Irishman O’Rourke is not donating much money to private charity and not donating to the “common good” by way of the U.S. Treasury. But as a means to save as much as he can on taxes, he is itemizing those meager donations.

What’s more, the Irishman O’Rourke’s wife is an heiress whose father is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So it’s not like they are pinching pennies over there.

Anyway, in another example of the American people doing the job the media won’t, the Irishman O’Rourke was confronted with the news about his miserly charitable giving at a town hall event in Virginia on Tuesday, and he responded by lecturing the audience about how the sacrifices he’s making on the campaign trail, the personal sacrifice he’s making in his quest for the presidency, should be good enough.

The questioner, a student at the University of Virginia, asked why her sister, a woman just one year out of college and who makes a lot less money than the Irishman O’Rourke, donated more to charity than he did.

I’ve served in public office since 2005. I do my best to contribute to the success of my community, of my state, and now, of my country. There are ways that I do this that are measurable and there are ways that I do this that are immeasurable. There are charities that we donate to that we’ve recorded and itemized, others that we have donated to that we have not.

But I’m doing everything that I can right now, spending this time with you — not with our kiddos, not back home in El Paso — because I want to sacrifice everything to make sure that we meet this moment of truth with everything that we’ve got.

Don’t you see, America, the Fake Hispanic’s charitable gift to America is Beto: he is his selfless gift to America; his very presence is a magnanimous act of charitable giving.

So far, at least where it counts — in the polling — the Irishman O’Rourke’s presidential campaign has failed to live up to the national media hype.

The shallow media love the guy, the even shallower celebrity culture loves the guy, donors love the guy, but this Hot New Thing remains mired in single digits, way behind two ancient white guys — former Vice President Joe Biden and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In fact, in the most recent national poll, he fell behind Pete Buttigieg to fourth place.

The media might find Beto all kinds of adorbs, but he’s also kind of a weirdo and obviously not catching on despite the worshipful coverage.

This terrible answer regarding his miserly charitable giving is not in and of itself disqualifying, but the incompetence of the answer, the unpreparedness, will worry those looking for someone tough and prepared enough to take on President Trump.

We can now add a fourth item to Jim Treacher’s list of what we already knew about Beto: